Integrated working: an overview

What is the video about?

People often need to use a range of services including health care, social care, housing, and the criminal justice system. Increasingly, organisations and people who are responsible for providing care and support, are realising the benefits of looking beyond their own service and practice. They’re integrating to meet the needs and wishes of people who use their services.People arriving at a health centre often have social issues that we need to deal with, housing issues that need to be dealt with and other issues that are blocking them from actually moving forward in their health. The film looks at the death of Stephen Hoskin in 2006. One of the principle findings of the serious case review was that every agency had a piece of a jigsaw but at no stage did they seek to discuss the information that they held or the concerns that they had about Stephen's circumstances.The agencies concerned have since made major changes to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again.

Messages for practice

It's recognised that when you work in a fragmented way that people fall through the gaps.When different professionals are working together it’s important that they agree and accept assessments other groups provide.Integration affects how the senior managers are planning and negotiating and commissioning services and what happens at that strategic level filters down to the operational level.

Who will find this useful?

Anyone who works in the caring professions, from nurses to care home managers, from local authority commissioners to occupational therapists.